Social impact prize awarded to Smart City Steroids, a project to create transparency and accountability in public tender systems in “smart cities” in India

Hong Kong, June 10, 2018 – Block.one, publisher of the ground-breaking EOSIO blockchain protocol, kicked off the EOS Global Hackathon series in Hong Kong this weekend, with its EOS VC business unit awarding US$144,000 in prizes today to winners at the iconic Kai Tak Cruise Terminal in Victoria Harbour.

The Hong Kong event is the first in a series of four hackathons taking place around the world this year under the theme decentralize everything, with a total of US$1.5 million in prizes to be awarded by EOS VC.

Each hackathon event features a unique challenge for developers building on EOSIO. The top three prize winners from each of the four hackathons will compete in a Grand Finale Pitch Competition event in December.

Identify a centralized business model and create a decentralized alternative that is built for large-scale mainstream adoption

Competing teams at the hackathon were tasked with attempting to “hack” the challenge, with the goal of designing DAPPs with real-world utility using EOSIO code.

A panel of international judges, including global technology and blockchain leaders, selected the winners from a pool of over 350 participants and more than 90 teams following 30 consecutive hours of programming:

Top prizes

First Prize, US$100,000 – IDPASS (France / United States / Belarus)

Second Prize, US$25,000 – Blockflare (Singapore / Hong Kong)

Third Prize, US$10,000 – Ducatur (Russia / Europe)

Secondary prizes

Best Social Impact, US$3,000 – Smart City Steroids

Best User Experience, US$3,000 – WarrantEase

Best Social Media Post, US$3,000 – Shabaz Ahmed

“We believe blockchain will redefine the Internet and society through decentralization,” said Block.one CFO Andrew Bliss. “EOSIO will ease the path to adoption of blockchain technology by creating a system that makes doing business more safe, secure and transparent. As we saw this weekend, the potential to change existing centralized models of commerce and communication is exponential.”

The First Prize winning team, IDPASS, aims to offer one billion-plus global citizens with no formal identification documents a way to build a trusted ID over time that is private, recoverable and fully under their control.

Paul Wehner, a member of the IDPASS team, said: “We’re incredibly thrilled to be a part of the EOSIO global developer community. Our aim is to keep building IDPASS as an open-source project and to collaborate with humanitarian agencies to bring healthcare, educational, financial and legal services to the undocumented.”

Commenting from Block.one’s office in Blacksburg, Virginia, company CTO Dan Larimer, said: “I’m incredibly excited that we have so many brilliant developers actively building on the EOSIO platform. The community has been quick to recognize that EOSIO is the most robust, secure and scalable blockchain protocol. The developers at this weekend’s event are the blockchain pioneers of tomorrow.”

The team behind Blockflare, which took second prize, described their project as a “crowd-sourced, decentralized anti-DDoS platform that guarantees DDoS mitigation through a novel protocol based off of proof-of-work and Tor routing.”

Ducatur, a project to build the first decentralized exchange that supports both EOS and Ether, and with the speed of Binance, took third prize.

The Social Impact prize was awarded to Smart City Steroids, a project to create transparency and accountability in public tender systems in “smart cities” in India. Smart City Steroids will also attend the Grand Finale event.

Hackathon judge Larry Sanger, who is also the CIO of Everipedia and the Co-Founder of Wikipedia, said: “With this event, Hong Kong is showing why it’s quickly becoming a regional hub for new technology, particularly blockchain. As an entrepreneur, I’ve seen how communities can deliver impact and help develop open-source projects for the greater good. The talent here is undeniable and the results of the hackathon show that the EOS community is one of strongest in the tech world.”

“As a global meeting-place of ideas and innovation, Hong Kong is an ideal location to launch the EOS Global Hackathon series, which showcases some of the best talent in blockchain. This weekend we’ve seen teams push the boundaries and explore blockchain’s transformational potential. EOS VC is proud to help be a catalyst of growth for the EOSIO platform,” said Brian Mehler of EOS VC.